This afternoon, educators, community leaders and officials from the U.S. Department of Education plan to highlight those efforts at a town hall style meeting at Ottawa Hills High School.

Brenda Girton-Mitchell, who oversees the U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and will lead the meeting, will also urge those in attendance to join “Together for Tomorrow,” a federal initiative that aims to grow the number of people participating in efforts to improve struggling schools like Ottawa Hills.

“The visit is to continue rolling out ‘Together For Tomorrow’ across the country so people see the way that communities can be effectively engaged in school partnerships (and) to drive the results we need to improve outcomes for our kids,” Girton-Mitchell said.

At GRPS, the community partnerships are numerous and fruitful, administrators said.

“Education is not just about what takes place in the school,” said district spokesman John Helmholdt. “Now, more than ever, it’s important that we embrace our volunteers, community nonprofits and business partners and bring them to the table.”

The partnerships are particularly important as schools throughout the nation suffer under the weight of budget cuts and everyone “is doing more with less,” Girton-Mitchell said.

“Our children win when we can have the family and the community, the pastors and the secular organizations and leadership understand that there are ways that we work together to embrace celebrating education,” she said.

According to GRPS administrators, Grand Rapids is one of about a dozen cities federal officials are visiting to highlight the value of community partnerships.

Other cities that have been visited so far include Orlando, New Orleans, Memphis, with other visits planned for places such Las Vegas, Denver and Minneapolis.

Michael Robbins, senior adviser for Nonprofit Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education, said Grand Rapids came to his attention after learning about programs the Heart of West Michigan United Way has created that paired faith-based groups with school children.

The United Way created the Schools of Hope initiative, which provides after-school instruction at neighborhood churches throughout the city.

“They are funding faith-based organizations to assist schools and to help place staff in schools to support community partnerships, and we know that’s really one of the first things that has to happen,” Robbins said. “We have to start building the capacity for schools.”

Tony Campbell, vice president of community impact – education at the Heart of West Michigan United Way, says his group has about 19 community-based sites throughout Grand Rapids that offer educational opportunities.

He said it makes sense that Grand Rapids is being highlighted considering the city’s emphasis on philanthropy.

“The town itself, there’s a reason why we’re second in the nation in philanthropy,” he said. “There’s a culture of giving back in GR that makes GR unique.”

Also participating in the visit is Roberto Rodriguez, who serves as a special assistant to President Barack Obama on education policy.

Rodriguez, a 1993 graduate of City High School-Middle School, said Grand Rapids Public Schools provided him with quality education and he wants to see struggling schools within the district improve and thrive.

“For our administration, a big priority for us is the work around turning around some of our low performing schools and really helping make sure we’re doing the work of closing the achievement gap and providing every young person a shot at achieving college and career ready standards,” he said.